The archived blog of the Project On Government Oversight (POGO).

Aug 23, 2011

The National Institutes of Health New Ethics Rules: A Swing and a Miss

By PAUL THACKER and NED FEDER

After almost four years of horrible press over medical research tainted by conflicts of interest, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was presented with a great opportunity to make fundamental changes to their rules, increase transparency, and strengthen public trust in taxpayer-funded research.

Instead, they stepped up to the plate...assumed a power stance...and struck out.

The NIH released its final rule today, and gone are the provisions that would’ve injected some much-needed transparency into taxpayer funded research.

Here’s how they could’ve written the rule to hit a home run:

Before disbursing federal funds to an academic researcher, the university must disclose that researcher’s outside income and a plan to manage the researcher’s conflicts of interest. Both the outside income and the management plan will be posted on the NIH RePORTER website, which details other information about the grant.

Instead of being able to access the information easily online, taxpayers will have to write to universities and ask them about the professor’s conflicts of interest. Imagine if you had to write to your politician to ask who he takes money from, instead of viewing it on publicly available websites.

Are America’s professors scared to meet the ethical standards of elected politicians?

Furthermore, the universities’ conflict of interest management plans will remain hidden. You're not allowed to see them. Why? It doesn’t make any sense.

Finally, there are no changes to the penalties, one NIH official said in today’s phone briefing, because the previous rules had “strong enforcement.” Please.